STUNNED Lewis Hamilton endured a vicious backlash yesterday after becoming the youngest driver to take the Formula One crown.

The BBC helped heap criticism on Britain’s newest sporting hero with a phone-in encouraging callers to vent their dislike of the Grand Prix ace.

In Spain, where 23-year-old Hamilton has been the target of racist abuse, thousands of bitter motor-racing fans bombarded newspapers and radio stations with claims that the world title was fixed.

On the internet the attacks were worse. Car-racing fans, devoted to abusing Hamilton on social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo, included one who declared: “I’d Like To Kill Lewis Hamilton”.

The day after Hamilton clinched the world title by a point in Sao Paulo, Brazil, BBC Radio 5 invited listeners to air their views on the star. Presenter Aasmah Mir revealed that a third of callers wanted to slate the first black winner of the F1 title for living as a tax exile in Switzerland and for being “smug and arrogant”.

A clear majority of callers praised Lewis’s achievements

A Radio 5 spokesman

Sir Stirling Moss, 79, winner of 16 Grand Prix races but never the world title, attacked the BBC for marring the celebrations that greeted the crowning of a new British superstar.

He said: “The BBC need to put their own house in order before they criticise anyone else.”

Many Spanish claimed Hamilton’s win, as a result of passing Timo Glock’s Toyota near the end of the race, was “a fix”. One said: “Come on, cheque book to Glock.” It was pointed out that Glock’s first name Timo means “swindle” in Spanish.